"Shroud of Silence"Watch this 15-minute 1999 documentary about the lives of women under the Taliban in Afghanistan. With the Taliban back in power and women forced back into virtual house arrest, this film is tragically still relevant.

Afghanistan to Dominate NATO SummitAssociated Press: "The 26 presidents and prime ministers all know that the future of their alliance is playing out in the deserts of Kandahar and mountains of Uruzgan rather than in their conference hall on the Baltic Sea."

Armitage: Afghanistan More pressing than IraqAssociated Press: "Afghanistan is a more immediately pressing issue than Iraq because of the potential of spillover into neighboring countries," according to former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

Afghan Autopsy

(Page 3)

The Afghan communists of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan took over in 1978 with dreams of jump-starting modernization and development in their deeply backward nation of mountain villages, nomads and dirt roads. Instead, they triggered immediate crisis. The communists of the PDPA favored expanding education, gender equality and land reform, but their doctrinal cleavages led to almost immediate internecine warfare within the party. In 1967, the PDPA had split into two groups—the Khalq and Parcham—but there was violent rivalry even within the Khalq faction.

The new government succeeded in alienating Afghanistan’s largely autonomous tribal leaders. Scattered rebellions soon erupted. By April, 1979, whole units of the Afghan army were defecting to the rebels. As early as March 30, 1979, Robert Gates, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, attended a meeting at which Under Secretary of Defense Walter Slocumbe asked whether there was “value in keeping the Afghan insurgency going, [and] sucking the Soviets into a Vietnamese quagmire.”

As former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, explained in a 1998 interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, the U.S. began aiding the tribalist and Islamic uprisings as early as July 1979. By early autumn, the Afghan army had collapsed and the USSR, fearing that Islamic rebellion in Afghanistan would quickly spread to its Central Asian republics, invaded on Dec. 24, 1979.

Soviet Special Forces, or Spetnaz, commandos killed one communist leader, Hafizullah Amin, who had earlier killed Nur Mohammed Taraki, and replaced Amin with the more agreeable Babrak Karmal. For the next eight years, the Soviet Union bled into the Hindu Kush mountains, sending in war material and fresh troops only to bring out zinc caskets and heroin-addicted vets. As the war progressed, the Red Army’s tactics devolved: mines were dropped indiscriminately from planes and civilian populations bombed.

The U.S. effort in this conflict was also massive, described by Fred Halliday as “the largest covert operation in the history of the CIA.”

From 1979 to 1992, America channeled a minimally estimated $3 billion to the various mujahedeen factions fighting the Russians and then the Najibullah regime. The Saudi dynasty sent an equal amount, while additional aid flowed from China, Iran, assorted Islamic charities, drug-running operations, privatized CIA funding sources (such as the collapsed Bank of Commerce and Credit International) and various Arab millionaires (such as Osama bin Laden).

Most of the arms were Soviet hand-me-downs purchased from the increasingly Western-oriented Egypt. Running the pipeline of arms, training, money, information and drugs in and out of Afghanistan was the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. Described as a state within a state, the ISI almost doubled in size during the war and became the most religiously politicized apparatus of the Pakistani government.

Throughout the Reagan years, U.S. funding for the mujahedeen steadily increased. Facilitated by innocuously named lobbying groups like the Afghan American Educational Fund, above-board appropriations for the largely secret campaign reached $250 million annually by 1985. Much more issued from the CIA’s black budget. Fully a third of U.S. monies went to the religious zealot and Pashtun Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Now this feverishly anti-American warlord has joined forces with the Taliban.

Among the many volunteers who joined the jihad was the young Osama bin Laden. Another was his now close comrade, the Egyptian surgeon-turned-terrorist, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Charged with conspiracy in the assassination of Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, Zawahiri was arrested, tortured and, upon release, fled to Afghanistan. Known as “Afghan Arabs,” these foreign fighters also included Pakistanis, Filipinos, Chinese, Indonesians and Malaysians.

By the time the Afghan communists were vanquished and the mujahedeen were victorious, Afghanistan was devastated. In place of a state, it had seven competing guerrillas parties. Civil war and banditry consumed the next decade and from this emerged the Taliban—a messianic, largely illiterate, vigilante force that sought to impose Muslim law and order upon Afghanistan’s anarchic state of war.
For the U.S. to have succeeded after ousting the Taliban would have taken Herculean effort, single-minded dedication, enormous sums of money, a deft cultural and historical expertise, wise political balancing between rival Afghan factions and ethnic groups and a careful vetting of Afghan allies.

Instead, the American-led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was marked by carelessness, parsimonious budgeting and a deep cultural ignorance rooted in a sense of technology-based omnipotence.

Central to the Afghan failure was the Bush administration’s obsession with Iraq—the land of oil, cornerstone of Arab nationalism, strategic linchpin to a globally crucial region. In the Bush imperial scheme, Afghanistan served as a stepping-stone to Iraq and a political prop with which to sell and justify the more nebulous war on terror. As a project in and of itself, Afghanistan was always a sloppily handled sideshow.

Consider again the salient facts: Well before 9/11, the Bush team’s earliest cabinet meetings touched on regime change in Iraq. Days after 9/11, then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz suggested that the U.S. skip an invasion of Afghanistan and proceed directly to Iraq. His boss, Donald Rumsfeld, complained that there were no good targets in Afghanistan. But the Afghan invasion had to happen for U.S. foreign policy to have any credibility. As it happened, the Afghan war was an advertisement for Rumsfeld’s goal of “military transformation” and his theory of light, fast warfare.

Once the Afghan occupation began, the political process was rushed. Warlords were allowed to take over the government. The loya jirga, the constitution, the presidential elections, and the parliamentary elections were all rushed processes, designed to meet U.S. political deadlines. This was the quickest way to create the short-term appearance of stability and success and thus was the quickest way to Iraq. But this process created a hopelessly dysfunctional, intensely corrupt Afghan government, and that foreordained Western failure. After all, who would stand up as the West stood down?

The international community’s military spending in Afghanistan has outpaced development spending by 10 to 1. This is a core mistake in a war that is fundamentally political. Despite the disproportionate military spending, the U.S. deployed only 9,000 troops to hunt Osama bin Laden during the first two years. The ratio of support troops to combat soldiers in the U.S. military is such that a force of 9,000 translates into little more than 800 or 900 soldiers actually in the field at any one time.

One of the reasons of implicating Afghanistan into a war was their huge potential to produce drugs which can profit the Zionists by the billions. lately the Brit forces did encourage the Afghans into cultivating it and soon the effects of a BUMPER CROP should be hitting the streets of America & Europe soon. IT was this profit that they are soon going to derive that irritated them into kiling off the Taliban, there was never ever any concern for the well being of Afghans or Iraqi or anyone else, its the money madness that is driving the Zionists and for the money they would even sell their moms.
its a pity that Zionists consider themselves the tru humans and then yet they have no indication of being anything even close to it.

I don’t complain about Fox (a position with which I happen to disagree) or Lou Dobbs (a position whit which I do agree) I complain that News media have a position at all. BUT having humans report news through a medium completely supported by entrenched corporate interests invites bias….
sometimes from the left, but because of where the money comes from… often from the right.

OK JB - this is il ultimo - and just so everyone knows, it’s called FALSE FLAG TERRORISM and it’s the oldest trick in the book - a number of the links to these postings are still hot - some are dead - much of this obviously comes from agency leaks - a lot of the spooks don’t like what’s going on either - google this and see what you get: “al queda cia asset”

to the Comment #60885 by Jackie T. Gabel look if you factor in the left wing nut-roots you cant complain about fox news !! at least they “try” to be fair ??? this electronic medium is totally whacked!! it will will have its own dubious chapter in the future history books !!
come on libs quit complaining about Fox news !! its crocodile tears!! and it makes you look like cry babies!!

PS- I’m still waiting for proof??

and to Comment #60033 by Toby?? and Jackie too, shame on you guys and anybody else who comparing bush to Hitler and his cronies (and I’m getting tired of saying so !! its not even original, or funny, its just stupid) but thanks, you make my above point !! at first this kind of talk made me mad ??? now, it gives me strength, for it shows all who speak such nonsense it a bright light !!

This president doesn’t have a brain and can’t think on his own. This idot listened to Chenut and Crummie Rummy. They took our soldiers to war in Iraq without finishing what they should have done in the first place. God will get the bastards that is for sure. I just still don’t understand how bush got elected. I can’t stand watching him speak. He is proud that before he became president he didn’t travel overseas and thrilled that he doesn’t read. What an inspiration for us all. I’m glad I didn’t vote for this idot.

“about the Comment #56603 by shepherd!!
hey i saw Moores 9/11 !! i read and look into theses claims !!!what are blinders?? hell Im on this site??
a news flash- Moores 9/11 is a hack cut & paste hit job !!! its no movie to be taken seriously if thats your kind of prof ??? then Dude !! as i say !!! you guys are lost !!”

Hey J.B., you forgot to mention/comment on the “bolt-action Mannlicher-Carcano WWII rifle notorious for its inaccuracy, and often referred to as the humanitarian rifle” that Oswald supposedly fired from an incredible distance to blow JFK’s head apart in a moving vehicle… please do, and we’ll get back to Moore’s 9/11 hack cut & paste job later - I gotta get to work now!

Billy Joel said something to the effect, “Man, you must be lost,” too recently; can’t exactly remember where though. But I’ll try and remember for later.

about the Comment #56603 by shepherd!!
hey i saw Moores 9/11 !! i read and look into theses claims !!!what are blinders?? hell I’m on this site??
a news flash- Moores 9/11 is a hack cut & paste hit job !!! its no movie to be taken seriously if that’s your kind of prof ??? then Dude !! as i say !!! you guys are lost !!

Comment #56272 by Michael Hipple says “I have stopped paying taxes and I will not pay taxes until I see some leadership that respects the US constitution. Bush and crew are fascists. We are no different right now than those folks in Germany as Hitler took control of their lives.”
knee o’kaun says- only a !!historically challenged buffoon would compare Bush to Hitler it simply shows he is clueless about both men !! and please, you have to make money before you can be taxed ??? if you do make it and you are not paying you taxes i say “right on brother” ha ha ha ha ha for Uncle Sam will come a knocking ha ha ha ha ha ha you wont go to jail unless you lied on your tax forms but if you just didn’t file? they will get you in 5 or 6 yrs and you will never be able to be on a payroll long term, have a bank account, or own property, until you start to pay back the “man” in triplicate cause you will also be paying back interest and fines too ha ha ha ha ha good luck buddy !!!

Comment #56252 by republicanSScareme says- “I will continue to call Republicans Nazis until they stop calling Democrats traitors.”
knee o’kaun says- another historically challenged buffoon would compare Bush to Hitler, look!! if Bush was a “Hitler type” you my friend would not be allowed to call him such? just the fact that a web site like this exists, proves he is no Hitler !!! and treason is the act of aiding and abetting the enemy in time of war !!! so if you disparage the troops the Commander and Chief or the mission in a time of war? you are by definition, committing treason !! once the bullet’s are flying and men are dying for your freedom to write your stupidity, then you should any up and kick in, and support the mission !!! its your birth right as a free American not to? but that doesn’t change what you are: an imbecilic traitor !!!

S. Redding: “I have a very different view from most, the US CIA created the Taliban during the Reagan years, why be naive and pretend that the Taliban is anything other than an extension of the CIA today? Right now they are doing CIA dirtywork.”

We’ve all heard about Mike Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’, but a lot of us still haven’t seen it. I only caught it a few days ago for the first time. Excerpt:

In 1997, while George W. Bush was governor of Texas, a delegation of Taliban leaders from Afghanistan flew to Houston to meet with Unocal executives to discuss the building of a pipeline through Afghanistan.

A senior delegation from the Taleban movement in Afghanistan is in the United States for talks with an international energy company that wants to construct a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan. A spokesman for the company, Unocal, said the Taleban were expected to spend several days at the company’s headquarters in Sugarland, Texas. Taleban in Texas for Talks on Gas Pipeline, BBC News, December 4, 1997 (Sugarland is 22 miles outside Houston.)

The Taliban ministers and their advisers stayed in a five-star hotel and were chauffeured in a company minibus. Their only requests were to visit Houston’s zoo, the NASA space centre and Omaha’s Super Target discount store to buy stockings, toothpaste, combs and soap. The Taliban, which controls two-thirds of Afghanistan and is still fighting for the last third, was also given an insight into how the other half lives. The men, who are accustomed to life without heating, electricity or running water, were amazed by the luxurious homes of Texan oil barons. Invited to dinner at the palatial home of Martin Miller, a vice-president of Unocal, they marvelled at his swimming pool, views of the golf course and six bathrooms. After a meal of specially prepared halal meat, rice and Coca-Cola, the hardline fundamentalists - who have banned women from working and girls from going to school - asked Mr. Miller about his Christmas tree. Caroline Lees, Oil Barons Court Taliban in Texas, The Telegraph (London), December 14, 1997.

And who got a Caspian Sea drilling contract the same day Unocal signed the pipeline deal? A company headed by a man named Dick Cheney, Halliburton.

On October 27, 1997, both Unocal and Halliburton issued press releases about their energy work in Turkmenistan. Halliburton Energy Services has been providing a variety of services in Turkmenistan for the past five years. Press Release, Halliburton Alliance Awarded Integrated Service Contract Offshore Caspian Sea In Turkmenistan, October 27, 1997. http://www.halliburton.com/news/archive/1997/hesnws_102797.jsp ;
ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Oct. 27, 1997 - Six international companies and the Government of Turkmenistan formed Central Asia Gas Pipeline, Ltd. (CentGas) in formal signing ceremonies here Saturday. Press Release, Consortium Formed to Build Central Asia Gas Pipeline, October 27, 1997.

I’m sure that Jackie T. can speak for himself, but as this is an open forum for all and any to participate in, when you say,

“but when accusations like these and statements like these are made, you need ‘documentation and proof’ of what you’re saying??? ‘if you were to provide me with proof’!!”

All it takes friend is removing the blinkers that obviously render you blind, sir. A little research into Webster Tarpley’s claims and pointers reveals a hell of a lot. Presumably you still accept that Oswald from way up in the Depository building with a bolt-action ‘Mannlicher-Carcano WWII rifle’ notorious for its inaccuracy, and often referred to as the ‘humanitarian rifle’ because it never killed anyone on purpose, killed Kennedy? Perhaps the real reason behind JFK’s assassination had something to do with:

“While Kennedy had originally supported the policy of sending ‘military advisors’ to Vietnam in an ‘advisory role’, he had begun to change his thinking, and shortly before his death in November 1963 he had ‘begun limited recall of American forces’.” Jeff??

Afghanistan has been the graveyard of many invading foreigners over the centuries. Add to that the fact that the USSR invaded the place with an army of over 400,000 men that wasn’t the least bit concerned with civilian casualties, the Geneva Convention, or the observations of a free press and failed. This begs the question of why the USA thought it was going to succeed where the Russians failed. If they had gone after Osama and his people and got out, that would have been the end of it. Where did Bush get the idea that the US Military can do the job of the Peace Corps.
On a different note, since I just found this site, i’d like to take the opportunity to thank Robert Scheer for exposing the Jessica Lynch hoax that the Axis of Evil(Bush,Cheyney,Rummy) tried to foist on the public to drum up support for the Iraq misadventure. A lot of people from the right as well as the left smelled a rat in this thing from the get go. If the dems find their courage, this thing should end soon.

dear Jackie T. Gabel i dont mean to constantly ridicule you ??? you seam like a intelligent person? i went to your web site!! but when accusations like these and statements like these are made, you need documentation and proof of what your saying??? if you were to provide me with proof!! not some other whacked out web site with the same observations but no proof !! but hard proof !! than i would whole heartingly agree and support your views!!
if Bush was sending our soldiers to die for his personnel benefit and profit i would be the first one to say investigate and try him for crimes of high treason !! but looking at the world in its historical context, and being a follower of human history !! that is simply not the case !! i mean your really off base if you cant see the threat posed to us by radical Islam ??? just listen to there own words?? and see there own deeds??? how can you blame Bush for that ?? i cant help but think you guys (not just you ) are just horrible wrong !!! sorry !!............ show me the proof .................illgramaticus knee okaun

I have a very different view from most, the US CIA created the Taliban during the Reagan years, why be nieve and pretend that the Taliban is anything other than an extension of the CIA today? Right now they are doing CIA dirtywork. At this moment our youngest, my second graders are being indoctrinated with words like afghanistan, Taliban, overthrowing governments, Liberia, soldiers, etc. and this is found on a website promoted by “NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND” for public schools.I wish everyone would stop rehashing Bin Laden, etc. if they wanted him dead he would be… duh.TODAY the CIA is giving weapons to IRANIAN minorities in an effort to start civil war, yet again, TODAY, BBC. If everyone doesn’t stop acting like your trying to solve some stupid mystery. Wake up, they love war, they love oil, millions of innocent people die in their name, they have been planning this for a long time. CALL YOUR SENATOR, CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN, PROTEST. (CHOMSKY)

“Anyone following this thread, I strongly recommend, if youve not done so, follow the links previously posted to Tarpleys lecture from his book 9/11 Synthetic Terror - Made in USA. His clarity is compelling. Reviews here: http://www.amazon.com/9-11-Synthetic-Terror-First/dp/0 930852311 “

Excellent stuff though the ‘controlled demolition’ of the twin towers is hard to accept, consideing we were watching the TV news live as the first plane hit, just short of 11.00pm where we are and yet computer controlled planes into the buildings is very feasable, and indeed very likely.

You haven’t mentioned the former Boston air traffic controller Robin Hordon. If our Happy Days friend J. ‘Richie’ Cunningham (must be a fan of “Dallas” too with initials like “J.R.”) has any further doubts about 9/11 being an inside job, then check this out:

Thank Christ some people have the courage to speak out, and hopefully nail in time the true perpetrators. But something else; as we’re seeing the US is now run by an invisible secret government, an ‘oligarchy’ (had to look this baby up in the dictionary), so if by a miracle Obama becomes Pres. in ‘08 he’ll quickly have to learn to tow the line or he’ll rapidly become another casualty like Kennedy, no? This is where Hillary has the upper hand - she knows the game, understands it, and doubtless will play it if elected, and once again the bulk of the ‘have nots’ (the underpriviledged) in US society won’t be catered for, meaning the ‘war on terror’ will continue unabated.

“Im not all that clever with a computer so I dont know how to provide one with a link other than to write it out and then youre on your own.”

It’s very simple man. All you do is “highlight” the URL (uniform resource locator) address link by placing your “mouse pointer” on it and clicking it (this will highlight it). Step 2, with your mouse pointer on the highlighted link, then “right click” your mouse button and then click “copy”. Step 3, place your “mouse pointer” wherever you like in your post and again click your “left” mouse button and select “paste”. Bingo, you’ve “copy & pasted” a link from any web-page to your post.

Practice makes perfect.

Reading the exchanges between you two guys, Jack and yourself has been an education…

Thanks.

PS. You can basically highlight anything by running your mouse pointer over it whilst holding down the left mouse button, then just right click and copy the highlighted text and paste it where you like.

I’d like to see some evidence of the bold claim that Osama Bin Laden is still alive!
No credible evidence for Bin Laden has been seen for at least 4 years. The audio tapes attributed to him are not creditable and have been debunked by Bin Laden experts. http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=local&id=3828678

Dear John: Looks like we’re about the only ones left here…so what? As for the polls, it’s worse than you think. The most recent NY Times, CBS poll revealed that less than 20% believe the government is not lying in some way or another about 9/11. The most forgiving position now afloat is that the 911 Commission is an obvious cover up and complicity is an open secret in Washington, the media and the financial community, but almost everyone is desperate to avoid the inevitable constitutional crisis that a fully transparent 911 truth investigation would precipitate.

BTW: I went to Katherine Kersten’s page, read her articles and left the following note on her blog.

In 1975 and 1976, the Church Committee published fourteen reports on the formation of U.S. intelligence agencies, their operations, and the alleged abuses of law and of power that they had committed. These include infiltration of the media, which is probably far more thorough now than it was then. Editorialists like Katherine Kersten are obviously either rich assets or useful tools (some say fools, though that doesn’t seem to fit, she seems bright and witting).

The bottom line is this: There is a wide world of terror out there. It devastates whomever it touches, spreading chaos and havoc wherever it erupts. The naive citizenry of this nation cannot begin to handle the fact that the intelligence agencies of this nation are not staffed with persons morally strong enough to resist using this powerful weapon. The truth is that all the alphabet spooks have been up to their asses in terrorism; especial false flag terrorism for decades (including the ‘93 WTC bombing and the Oklahoma bombing). Additionally they have run kidnapping, death squads, arms and drugs all over the world.

Among the few moral and dedicated officers are numerous thugs paid to follow any orders they get  many severely compromised by wretched personal histories. Then there are the pathetic basket cases recruited by the boat load and often sacrificed as patsies. There are probably more unwitting than witting operatives caught up in these dirty little networks, mostly working within small cells on a need-to-know basis. There are so many black-ops/psy-ops programs going on, very few on the outside ever manage to learn who’s doing what. Even the operatives mostly don’t know what’s going on  why they’re ordered t do whatever. Take this recent stunt with the ejected Imams and the attendant publicity blitz in its wake  psy-op written all over it; the purpose of which is simply to perpetuate fear of terror, the myth of Islamo-fascism; keep it in the news; keep one and all afraid, very afraid and ultimately resentful of the laws now being drafted vis-à-vis the profiling issue.

Orwell had it dead on right, just 20 years off. I wrote about my Polish wife observing US society now devolving into an Orwellian (though to Poles the better term is Kafkaesque) nightmare. You cannot even begin to imagine the outrage in Poland upon learning that their newly emerged “democratic” government had submitted to CIA demands to refurbish communist-era prisons there to serve in their global torture gulag. I couldn’t resist adding: “Yeah, that’s Rummy’s New Europe.”

These Straussian neocon madmen must be shown to their cells. Their elitist, warmongering, Nietzschien, superman, proto fascist insanity we have suffered too long. For the sake of our very humanity and for the peace of the entire world we can not afford to suffer them any longer.

Abugrabthis. I’m not all that clever with a computer so I don’t know how to provide one with a link other than to write it out and then you’re on your own. It’s an article about that vacation spot in Guantanamo Bay. http://www.startribune/blogs/kersten Mentioning that prison excess is not unlike terrorist apologists that trot out Timothy VcVeigh. One crazy white guy goes beserk and they start painting broad strokes. Always felt sorry for his father. They live in Pendelton, NY and because I drove a taxi in Western New York I got to pass by his house often. You could see in his face the many times we ‘met’ him on TV how awful he felt. I daresay the fathers of those that flew the planes into those targets on 9/11 did the obligatory celebratory firing of weapons into the air. Don’t those goofballs realize that when you fire a bullet into the air it eventually comes down. We’ve known about gravity for quite a while, what is it with them. I know we used to do that in the Wild West, but we don’t do that anymore. Now I will express concern about Kurt Weldon. He’s in the congressional district next to mine. When they showed on the news the victory celebration of his opponent at the Saint Davids Hotel I was taken aback by the amount of middle easterners with their faces right up in the camera. Perhaps it was just that particular camera in that particular corner of the ball room. No, I’ll still think of it as an expression of ‘in your face’. Excuse me if I can’t get into all this we’re the bad guy conspiracies. I can’t think of any specifics right off the top of my head but over the years one hears of similar thought processes when the US was in similar crises in the past, some I heard of going back to Civil War days. Two different studies were conducted, each not knowing the other was being conducted. The question each population of one-thousand had, they were asked ‘do you think the United States attacked itself on 9/11’? Both studies came up with, within a couple of points of each other, one-third believed that that’s what happened. Transfer that inference to the total population of the United States, three-hundred million, we have one-hundred million people in the United States that believe the United States attacked itself on 9/11.

RE:  Comment #42056 by John Cunningham on 12/13 at 11:26 am  “Yes, I have a PC, too. Been to those web sites, also…controlled by Cheney.”

>>>>>>...Cheney?

Who’d trust Cheney? Tarpley makes it clear: “...3 heart attacks, 4 pace makers, a neocon wife yapping in his ear and turning up CNN over the interagency briefings…” No way; professionals did 911  an operation like that…a putz like Cheney? Seriously, Cunningham’s commentary is probably too crude to be professional disinfo., though it’s hard to tell these days. Witting or witless can both serve a purpose, not to mention the numerous limited hangouts: books by useful tools like Peter Lance, Bob Woodward or the NORAD tapes, et al, floating “incompetence” as a viable escape hatch.

To begin with, the 9/11 patsies simply couldn’t do it, i.e. manually fly jumbo jets like fighter pilots. Their role was simply to get noticed and appear dangerous. On the day of, they too were in the dark, if they were even on the planes; their names (real or otherwise) are not on the flight manifests, and their protected status within the Able Danger Program, where they played roles in terror drills, is documented from what’s left after 2.5 TB of Able Danger data was intentionally and illegally destroyed  investigated by Republican Representative Curt Weldon. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=20050917&articleId=965

At the heart of the 9/11 coup is the security stripping of Bush: hung out 30 min. at the school then another 45 min. in the air with zero fighter cover while the nation was “under attack” and FAA tracked over a dozen suspected hijackings  an orchestrated security stripping far beyond “incompetence” (literally treasonous) yet carefully ignored by the main stream media and of course the 911 Commission. Amidst the confusion, with the nation “under attack,” the threat was phoned in, “Angel is next” (Angel = Air Force One) accompanied by enough top-secret code to convince officials  all documented, William Saffire even mentioned it. The administration initially acknowledged then denied it. Bush capitulated, and then flew to Barksdale and Offut to take physical control of the nuclear trigger  the codes were compromised. Then he spoke by phone with Putin and made clear the coup plotters’ demands: The War of Civilizations starts now. The US is invading the Middle East and taking control of the military bases around the Caspian Sea. Russia had better not interfere. Among the 15-odd military drills running that day, virtually all of STRATCOM had been moved into in an advanced DEFCON posture, and of course the Russians had to come up to meet them. “So, let’s just nobody make any sudden moves here, OK?” Putin stepped back and allowed the US military to take up positions right on the Russian boarder. Yet, the corporate mainstream media found nothing remarkable in this  nothing remarkable?

So, now we’ve got an endless War of Terror  mission accomplished. Another 9/11 could easily get us over the edge. These madmen need to be shown to their cells.

PS: “...We dont do bastardly things any more…” except like Abu Grhaib  “I can never remember which it is.” Bad apples, letting off steam? Help out here, John, help us “get over it”  this wholesale dehumanization…who ever “gets over” this?

” insurgent fighters cite the U.S. presence in the country as their main wellspring of rage “
Canadian troops are shot at and bombed virtually everyday .
Then there is the endless sectarian violence and the repeated Genocide of Afghan Hazaras , and ....all of which has occured constantly , even before America existed .
But at least its the ” U.S. presence ” that is the ” main wellspring of rage ” .

Yes, I have a PC, too. Been to those web sites, also. We’ve all seen those news events of the buildings that have been taken down by controlled explosions. It takes weeks if not months to wire the buildings and then precisely set the charges. You’re then left with many miles of bundled wires that then are taken to an area perhaps a few hundred yards away from the building about to be taken down. Try to imagine how much time it would have taken to prepare two 110 story buildings. Perhaps four to six months to prepare. And thousands of people that worked there never saw or heard a thing. The Jews, Cheney, Bush and Halliburton are good. I’ll believe Frontline and Popular Mechanic’s explanation on what brought down World Trade Buildings on 9/11. Oh, wait, how silly of me, I forgot, radio controlled planes, controlled by Cheney in the basement of the White House brought them down. I can never remember which it is.

I think it was the late 1600’s or early 1700’s that there was probably the first use of biological warfare. It was an extremely cold Buffalo, NY winter, go figure. The Seneca’s were not doing well. Lord Amherst offered them blankets that had been infested with smallpox. Murdered thousands of Senecas. Amherst, NY, a suburb of Buffalo, very well off place, listed as one of the US’s top ten safest cities, is named after Lord Amherst. Yes, we used to do bastardly things to those people. We don’t do those things anymore. Kind of like no one alive today has ever been a slave or ever owned one. In the City of Niagara Falls, NY New York State deeded over to the Seneca Nation four square blocks of the city in an area very close to The Falls. The Senecas built this huge casino/resort that is a big time competitor of the casinos on the Canadian side. The Seneca Casino generates over a billion dollars a year. After expenses and the state takes their cut it all belongs to the Senecas. We don’t do bastardly things any more and we’re trying to make amends. The Senecas got over it.

If I may offer a suggestion. You seem to have taken on trauma from past lifetimes. Perhaps you’re suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. You can receive counseling for that. Then, too, you will be able to say, ‘I got over it.’ Just a thought, Mr. Jack.+

RE:  Comment #41930 by John R. Cunningham on 12/12 at 6:29 pm  “Senecas. Extremely well mannered and polite people. Much more than I can say for you, Mr. Jack…Are you saying that the Vice-president is fixin to blow up our new 83 story Comcast Building?”

>>>>>>> only a little Cherokee blood in my veins

...maybe that’s what makes me so feisty in the face of hegemons. Of course it’s well know how the Cherokee beat, Andy “Sharp Knife” Jackson, beat his Indian Removal Act of 1835 all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was declared unconstitutional. Then the old hegemon illegally ordered the Army to round up the most Western-educated, Western-assimilated, agrarian-based of all the Indian Nations, just to steal their land, and then murderously sent them by the thousands on a dead-of-winter, decimating forced march to a virtually worthless unwanted strip of wasteland in Oklahoma…and you dare to exhibit the arrogance to spit out, “they got over it.” Like hell they did. I dare you to go to the Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma and ask the people you meet there: “How about that Trail of Tears thing; you all got over it, right?”

As for Cheney’s handlers, forget your Comcast building, the too-worn-out-to-refurbish USS Enterprise is the ticket and just about ready to be retired by the brand new USS George Bush, launched for sea trials Oct. 7 under the name of POTUS 41  couldn’t be scripted more perfectly. And fitting you bring up the Seneca  name-sake to the Roman Emperor Nero’s counselor, who warned, “Beware, fabricated terror is like a drug. It always takes a bigger dose to get the same effect.” FLASE FLAG TERRORISM  oldest trick in the book.

Now, as for FALSE FLAG TERRORISM, of course the “manual” on that…avoid the term. The more it’s repeated: FALSE FLAG TERRORISM, the more the citizenry will come to recognize the expression: FALSE FLAG TERRORISM. Yes, folks it’s FALSE FLAG TERRORISM  what the Japanese used (a train bomb) for a pretext to invade Manchuria; FALSE FLAG TERRORISM, what the Germans used (a cross-boarder attack on a radio station) as a pretext to invade Poland; FALSE FLAG TERRORISM, what the US used (presumably a floating mine blowing up the USS Maine) as a pretext to go to war with Spain and of course there’s the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. It’s FALSE FLAG black-ops/psy-ops. It’s what the alphabet spooks do with their secret budgets: FALSE FLAG TERRORISM!

Half the violence now being labeled Islamo-Fascism is black-ops/psy-ops FALSE FLAG TERRORISM executed by CIA-MI-6-controlled terror cells: death squad executions, beheadings, car bombings  a strategy of tension and destabilization to create failed states and pretexts for wider and wider war. Get used to it folks: FLASE FLAG TERRORISM.

I lived in Western New York for twenty-three years. I got to meet many of the descendents of the original inhabitants, mostly Senecas. Extremely well mannered and polite people. Much more than I can say for you, Mr. Jack.

Are you saying that the Vice-president is fixin’ to blow up our new 83 story Comcast Building?

I see some recent entries here that echo the thought that the United States is encouraging the violence ‘over there’. That makes about as much sense as saying that police encourage crimminal behavior because the police go after crimminals.

From the world news I have read, it appears that you are right. BUT Americans (speaking of their governments now) NEVER accept “advisory help” from people they see as “less than superpowers” so like the Russians (who suffered similar supremacy issues) they will (after 2008) leave Afganistan unfinished, and Mushharf will have to deal with yet another failed state on his border. Because of popular oppinion in Northern Pakistan, he will allow (shall we say somewhat shady) elements to opperate up there, ‘cause it is in his interests to have tough lawless hombres between him and the ruined Afgan state.

i am from pakistan and i agree with u in some extent and some not.You have to see history of afghanistan that no body can rule afghanitan even alexander the great bribe them. THE BRITISH only know how to deal them they lost two wars and now they are on hatric.The best way is to deal the problem on three basis what mushharf said to nato beacuse he knows how to deal them.NO 1 put more tpoops on groun like 200000.No 2 start massive reconstruction and the doner money promissed by boon process. no 3 hire taliban into army police that they quit fight. If u cant do it thendont wast your time and money.Beacuse only playing blame game with pakistan on media wont help any body beacuse its not his war its american war he can help u some extent but cannot fight for u guys.last thing if american wont attack on iraq probably afghanistan a success. Two boats riders always sink.

Skruff,
I’m glad you were amused—Do you also find the dead U.S. troops amusing? Is the U.S. military policy, nothing more than a cynical sadistic joke—explain that to the parents of the young patriotic men and women, who died for nothing in Afghanistan and Iraq.

>>>>>>> spoken like a true hegemon  now if only they’d give up those “silly” rituals and “dead” languages…really get with the program (totally assimilate)...some would say they need another good smack down…put ‘em back in their place…while reminding them “this hurts me more than it hurst you.” And while were at it, some are saying to be on the lookout for another 9/11; seems the American People are going soft on the “pay back.” Indeed, but beware: if WMD go off anywhere in the world, don’t look to the cave, bin Laden, the laptop; don’t look to the “Axis of Evil.” Look to Cheney and Cheney’s handlers  hegemons you can understand, no doubt, Mr. Cunning-ham…sounds like a stage name, you’re field officer’s idea?

“Rather than creating a democratic society in Afghanistan we have created a corrupt country riddled with drugs and strife with terrorism; a country which has evolved into a failed state in the hands of drug cartels and narco-terrorists.”

Ok Ok, now you have made me laugh.

The above paragraph is the equivelant of saying “gambling corrupted Louisiana politics!!!

Rather than creating a democratic society in Afghanistan we have created a corrupt country riddled with drugs and strife with terrorism; a country which has evolved into a failed state in the hands of drug cartels and narco-terrorists.

In rural areas where wheat has historically been the dominant crop, fields of poppies are proliferating. Many poor farmers, who complain that the Afghan government and other countries have failed to ease their economic woes through legal means, say that they are growing illegal opium poppies for the first time.

Drug laboratories are in abundance where raw opium is processed into morphine or heroin  once rare in Afghanistan  are sprouting at an unprecedented rate.

Authorities appear less inclined to combat new drug syndicates than to share in their profits. The crude but money-making factories are largely condoned by elders, police and guarded by militiamen and their commanders.

What a MESS—Afghanistan is the number one drug manufacturer, and Iraq is a country in utter chaos.

Skruff, they’re twenty floors short of the new 83 story Comcast Building. Should be finished in a year. They still do plan by taking a view from the Belmont Plateau. If you can see William Penn from there, the sky’s the limit.

John, My ancestors arrived in what later became Philly in 1606. Thomas Snyder’s offspring were burried in the Arch Street Cemetary. I used to love it there BEFORE the buildings became taller than W.P.‘s hat

Looks like we’re a bunch of geezers re-fighting the war. Mr. Skruff and MR. Jackie (sorry, all the while I thought you were female) if you’re ever in the Philadelphia area, e-mail me. I’ll show you around Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross House the Art Museum, you can run up the steps just like Rocky. You Jack, my mother’s mother was Polish. I have a few second generationers that are still breathing. Maybe they could convince you to stay. Besides, if you went to Eurabia you’d have to buy all new prayer rugs.

Skruff, I’ve often wondered about nukes. Especially when they launched Tet. I got there in Sep ‘67. Things were as calm as things could be. I was saying to myself, ‘self, this Vietnam thing isn’t that bad’. And, then, Happy F****** New Year. Without exaggeration, went to the field for five months and literally, when and if I got the chance to lay down, it was on the ground. But, we got over it. Times Square couldn’t beat it. We nuked Japan, they did an immediate 180. No doubt, those that survived thought, ‘what were we thinking, Imperialism, that’s so silly’. They got over it. You must have seen the recent photo-ops of 43 and the Prime Minister of Japan going hand and hand through Graceland. Now a days we have neutrons, they’re supposed to be clean. I guess it’s like an environmentally friendly nuke. I hate it when we have to keep order on the planet with one arm tied behind our backs.

The war in Vietnam was unwinnable. I know I know, they now have arguments on how it could have been won, BUT none of those arguments take into consideration that 800 million chinese shared a border with Vietnam, and they were NOT going to allow a democracy and permenant US bases on that piece of Southeast Asia.

The fact is we were dumping millions there when the French were fighting that war, we picked the wrong ally… We covered France’ ass but when the end came there was no one to cover ours.

There were two ways Vietnam could have been ours.. General Douglas McArthur could have been granted permission to cross the Huang He into China and secure that nation… When he wanted to do this, China had no resources or will to fight. If that had happened, No Chinese assistance for the enemy, and no soviet interference because of the big US bases we would have built in China.

The second way we could have won the Vietnam war is if we had gone nuclear after tet. Unfortunately, that would have caused more problems than it solved..

You may or may not know (because you were over there) but in the late sixties, the government almost lost control of THIS COUNTRY regular riots in the streets, and more and more people saying “OUT NOW”

When I was young I wasn’t very smart (some say I haven’t improved) but Then, I was all for “staying the course” “fighting on” and all the other cute little sayings AND I still believe that those who supported the war were the majority… BUT I, and they were wrong…in retrospect, there was no reason for even one American to die in Southeast Asia… Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and their staffs were wrong also.

The ragged crew in the street, William Sloan Coffin, and Joan Baez were right.. It hurts to say this… But it’s so…

>>>> Indeed, we saw what happened to Aldo Moro when he let the ‘c’ people take their seats in the Italian Parliament (FYI, Red Brigade = Gladio = CIA/MI-6 = NATO)fully documented and exposed at Italian Parliament hearings ca. 1990.

RE:  Comment #41317 by John Cunningham on 12/08 at 1:59 am  “You cant blame the Vietnamese boat people and Pol Pot on on what was originally intended for that part of the world…”

>>>>> Oh yes I can. Ho’s ‘c’ word was Communism; The Dulles brothers’ ‘c’ word was Capitalism. The French version of the ‘c’ word for Vietnam was Colonialism. You, sir, cannot blame Ho’s compatriots for not wanting any more of that. Ho wrote to Truman directly. He did not beg for a Marshal Plan. He only asked that the French not be allowed to reoccupy the colony. The US could have prevented that and partnered for peace at the end of WWII instead of siding with colonialists  irony so rich it is lost on those for whom history is little more than an antiquarian prop for their demagoguery.

RE:  Comment #41317 by John Cunningham on 12/08 at 1:59 am  “Why are you not seething about Pol Pot? Why are not seething about the condition in what then became just Vietnam and millions would rather take their chances on rafts, voting with their feet, on the high seas? Hows this sound?”

>>>>> Oh yes I have seethed very intensly over the years. Here on the “Left” Coast as it’s often referred to, many thousands more refugees from SE Asia have settled, than on the “Right” Coast, and I know their stories very well. And, it is an historical fact that the Nixon/Kissinger bombing of Cambodia destabilized the country and gave Pol Pot his opening. Then five years later the US supported him (enemy of our enemy) when the Vietnamese came in to end the nightmare. Then a curious thing happened. They left  so much for the Domino Theory of Monolithic Communism.

RE:  Comment #41317 by John Cunningham on 12/08 at 1:59 am  “Why dont you float on out on a raft and go over there to live?”

>>>>> What took you so long? In the 60’s it was “USA, No. 1, Love it or Leave it!”

RE:  Comment #41317 by John Cunningham on 12/08 at 1:59 am  ” Theres probably a new industrial park…You could get a job there. Someday Ill take one of those tours…you can come down to the dock to see us off and you can wave from the dock as we fade into the horizon.”

>>>>> Finally, smug cosmopolitanism, another ‘c’ word. I’m not going to bludgeon your cute little vignette with my decades on the road in Europe, Africa and Asia, traveling “down with le peuple” as they say, not on cruise ships; as well as working at more jobs than I can remember. As for your attempt at “irony(?)” it’s a simple minded puerile scenario  a post-grad-educated 57-year-old American male slogging in a corporate sweat shop owned by global oligarchs and run by communists? I certainly have not misread your cloyingly contemptuous ad hominem denigrations.

As a freelance artist struggling to survive in this, the most philistine nation of all time, Europe has for some time been looking pretty good again. My wife, also an artist, would like nothing better than for us to return to her homeland, Poland, where our work will certainly be more appreciated. She’d especially like to leave because the USA, which she had always held as a beacon of freedom and liberty while she and her colleagues struggled against Orwellian totalitarianism, she now feels is becoming exactly that  a pot of simmering frogs. By all means, Mr. Cunningham, embark sooner rather than later on your South China Sea cruise. Do it while your dollars are still worth something and the casino is still open.

Jackie, you got me on the Gulf of Tonkin. But then, Uncle Ho used the ‘c’ word. You can’t blame the Vietnamese boat people and Pol Pot on on what was originally intended for that part of the world if we had been successful and the American people hadn’t lost their will and spine and in an act of spite cut off funding and not even have allowed our Air Force to assist the Army of the Republic of Vietnam when the north over ran the south after we left. Why are you not seething about Pol Pot? Why are not seething about the condition in what then became just Vietnam and millions would rather take their chances on rafts, voting with their feet, on the high seas? How’s this sound? Why don’t you float on out on a raft and go over there to live? A couple of years ago my brother and his wife gave me for Christmas a coat, they bought it at the GAP. Love that coat, it’s barely going to freezing today here in Philadelphia, it’ll be needed today. It was so funny, though, when I got that coat home that day I read the label and it turns out it was made in Vietnam. There’s probably a new industrial park in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City that exclusivly makes stuff for the GAP. You could get a job there. Someday I’ll take one of those tours that a lot of Vietnam veterans take so we can revisit our old haunts. Hmmmm, lunch in Tam Ky, dinner in DaNang, a week on the former DMZ in Quang Tri. Do a side trip to Khe Sahn, Route 9 is probably a four lane hard top now. Then when we go back to the ship to continue our south China Sea cruise you can come down to the dock to see us off and you can wave from the dock as we fade into the horizon. Oh, Jackie, there’s a little island called Cu La Rae (hope I spelled it right) it means island of sun. It’s only one by three miles and it’s twenty-six miles off the coast from Da Nang. Spent two weeks there in ‘67 guarding an Air Force radar installation. Maybe they turned it into an R&R destination for the Vietnamese by now. During my two years there I got to go to Australia three times. But, you’ll be working at the GAP, probably wouldn’t be able to afford a trip down under. Well, at least you’ll be happy and won’t be seething anymore.

For what it’s worth Ortega did ‘promise’ that he in so many words has matured and has turned down his rhetoric, he didn’t really mean he really wanted to be a communist. He was only (kidding). People can change, we’ll only have to hope for the best. His people have spoken.

Tony, I only did five years in the regular army (‘67-‘72) and ten in the guard (‘84-‘94) while living up in Buffalo. Hardly a lifetime. People say we talked to the Soviets therefore we should talk to the Iranians and Syrians. They fail to remember that when we were talking we did do Korea and Vietnam, and even though we did cut and run (ring a bell?) we also did sabre rattling big time during the eighties. Remember the big military build up that Reagan did? The big build up that those without spines said would take us three generations to pay for. The bill that Clinton did in fact pay off before he left office. Did the Soviets finally decide to get off the pot and finally take down that wall because Reagan said please or did they do it because they were afraid that Reagan was going to unleash the hounds? Now, Tony, tell us what you’re going to talk to President Imadinnerjacket about to convince him that on his list of top ten things to do he’ll from then on promise that he’ll put his current number one thing to do, kill all the Jews, to, let’s see, number seven on his top ten list. See if he’ll put us number eight. Please don’t chop my head off and I want my youtube back.

RE:  Comment #41087 by John Cunningham on 12/06 at 5:22 pm  “...I am one of those cold-war warriors. Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star with valor device, 67-68 and again 70-71. Those of us that participated in Korea and Vietnam helped to chip away at the wall that finally came down in Berlin in 89.”

>>>> who’s denying your service?

You should know better than to put up a straw man like that. I know vets who’d resent you’re doing that on their behalf.

If only the Dulles brothers’ thuggery hadn’t been so effective, perhaps Truman would have extended a Marshal Plan of sorts to our WWII ally, the nationalist Ho, rather than dispatching the US Navy to ferry back the French to reoccupy the colony they’d abandoned in the face of Japanese Imperialism…if only: 60k US dead, 2-3M Vietnamese dead, plus lifetimes of trauma and suffering, followed by the rise of Pol Pot, which found the US supporting that enemy of our enemy, and of course the requisite Gulf of Tonkin false flag used to launch the full-on theatre of madness.

Again, sir, I would never question your patriotism and service, only the presumed lack there of you seem to impose on those among us who would never follow such Strange Love architects of horror into the meat grinder of their nightmare, the result of their blatant lack of intent to find any peaceful solutions.

What can I tell you? A lifetime in the military has left you with a world view that justifies war and promotes war. Everything you say is offensive or defensive. It does not sound to me as though you can be reached in any meaningful way. Therefore this will be the last time I will bother to address you.

Jackie, my dear, I am one of those cold-war warriors. Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star with valor device, ‘67-68 and again ‘70-71. Those of us that participated in Korea and Vietnam helped to chip away at the wall that finally came down in Berlin in ‘89. Who’s to say that if we had treated those conflicts as wars, communism wouldn’t have collapsed sooner than it did. I’ve been alive long enough to have heard those that have tried to re-write history and dismiss our efforts with the 20/20 hindsight ‘oh, communism was going to collapse, anyway’. Their effort to dismiss our efforts with, oh, what you did was for nothing more than that era’s Cheney/Halliburton/Bush control efforts to control the planet. I can’t even remember the words they used, it was that long ago. But, deja vu, all over again. In those days all we had to deal with was Khruschev pounding his shoe on the podium at the UN telling us/US that ‘we will bury you’ and the Cuban missile crises. In those days, that’s all we had to deal with. Those of us with a spine, those that didn’t haul ass to Canada, helped to chip away at the wall that finally did come down in Berlin in ‘89. Is there anything that you would like to instruct me about? Is there anything that you feel you’re qualified to tell me all about? Electric cars, wonderful idea ever since the late 1800’s. No doubt you see some behind the curtain conspiracy as to why they’re not the standard of the day. I think reliability is the determining factor.

Skruff, Ho Chi Minh died. Gadaffyduck gave up after Reagan hit him with a missle or two, Ortega’s still in jail somewhere near Miami, NATO will get a spine and start engaging the Taliban like the US has been doing and Osama’s next.

Can’t do everything for everybody all of the time, we only have so many hands. One continent at a time.

Nice catch, Ralph Howe, #41043. Jackie T. Gabel sees clearly that the whole she-bang runs on gangster rules. So, one suspects, do those commenters who are all “Hooray for our side!” in their world of “good guys” (gangs) vs. “bad guys” (gangs), dead certain their own ol’ homeland-boys are gonna come out on-top, in the bitter end. Their’s is indeed a zero-sum mad, mad, MAD world, and nothing that doesn’t go along with their winner-take-all delusions can ever penetrate the filters (cobbled together out of preconceptions and faux news) entombing their sensibilities. Still, their canned rants do offer a chance to ‘show-and-tell’ what becomes of people who “...have eyes but will not see, ears but do not hear” (just like George A. Custer and his ill-fated underlings). Such cautionary examples might keep at least a few others from enlisting slap-happily in the all-American Zombie Jamboree.

This might not be the appropriate place for this comment, but I have never contributed anywhere before - so here goes. The Baker commission just went public and part of their plan is to provide OJT to the Iraq army, with with US military personnel embedded as trainers. One of the Baker commission said during their report that a US military assignment as one of these embedded trainers would be considered as a career enhancer opportunity. Could this phrase be considered as the same as cannon fodder? Also, the training of the lucky military men to be embedded started awhile ago. Is the Baker commission just providing cover for another establishment dumb idea?

The Grand Chessboard, The Clash of Civilizations, The Project for a New American Century

As for your last response, I’m simply not buying into this fabricated mania, and my own personal mission in hitting these blogs is to get the message out that these false flag black-ops/psy-ops by CIA/MI-6 operatives (al Queda, et al) are distorting, cynically lethal weapons  weapons that must be broken before the faces of the oligarchs, and with utter defiance so as to render the use of false flag terror impotent in world politics. This means investigations, indictments, prosecutions and executions; magnitudes more severe than Iran Contra  probably a constitutional crisis. Fine, bring it on! This nation, you insist upon holding up as the great grab-bag for get-rich-quick opportunity to a desperate world, is sinking so fast it needs shock thearapy, and it needs it quick. Not until that is done can there be any serious pursuit of peace.

And finally, you never answered the question: “Would you send your loved ones to die for the wealth of Cheney’s cronies?”

Is it possible that our free market society is what the world needs? Why do we have so many seething self-hating Americans continually thinking of us as the bad guys. People vote with their feet, they say 11 million tripping over themselves to illegally, to come here to get a piece of the action? Europe, some of the Middle East, a lot of Asia, Australia, still questionable about Russia, admit it, they’re just like us. We all must be doing something right (excuse me, so as not to offend sensibilities) how about if I say correct. And then, when you least expect it, here comes along a Hitler wannabee that wants to steal everything from everybody. The Jews are the provebial canaries in the mine. We have something on this planet that number one says out of their mouths they’re going to kill all the Jews and when they’re finished killing all the Jews then they’re going to kill all of those that are not of their ilk. I’m not one of their ilk. I don’t even go to church, what makes you think I want to have to hit the prayer rug five times a day. I like my non-practicing Catholic head right where it is, thank you very much. Just like what Hitler said he was going to do, he did. President Imadinnerjacket is a carbon copy. Mein Kamph, ‘My struggle’, Jihad, ‘the struggle’. They’re both reading from the same play book. Just curious, are any of you of their ilk? One-hundred million of that ilk are just ‘dying’ to make it so.

These “black ops” referred to in Comment #40872 by Jackie T. Gabel are just good oldfashioned “american values” dressed in today’s clothing. James K Polk did the same thing to begin the Mexican war and steal 1/3 of Mexico’s territory.

The sinking of the Maine (now thought to be a result of poor boiler maintainance) pushed the “Pro peace” administration of William McKinley into the Spanish American war in 1898 United States took over the former colonies of Spain, in the Caribbean and Pacific.

The Aroostook war which was totally nunecessary (thank goodness bloodless) and on and on…

2% of the world’s RICHEST own 50% of the world’s wealth. The top 10% own 85%. This is from a report in 2000. We have watched the “middle class” shrink year after year in this country. Corporations continue to merge at a record pace. “Rollerball” anyone - it’s already been reality for quite sometime. Imagine a good part of the planet that has never known anything but abject poverty. The world has been set up for an unprecedented period of war and civil unrest with no end in sight. America cannot remain immune from the rest of the world’s problems no matter what our corrupt lying politicians tell us about fighting them there. Corporate interests rule this planet using cartoon characters like Bush as a front. Just ask yourself who has benefited from the NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, SHAFTA etc. Real revolution will be our only salvation or should we put our faith in DIEBOLD?

John, I hold each human being, especially including myself, responsible for his or her own actions. If you will accept the responsibility for what you have done to Palestinians, then Islamic militants must also accept responsibility for what they have done to Israelis. But since both you and they refuse to accept responsibility for your own actions and instead blame the other, neither of you has any moral standing in my eyes.

You are (of course) right John. When you said “We did get Hitler” I assumed you were speaking of U.S. soldiers. Not the “Great allience.”

You additionally stated “we will get Imadinnerjacket and the mullahs”, but we didn’t get Ho Che Minh, We didn’t get Gudaffi, We didn’t get Ortega, We didn’t get Osama, We haven’t shut down the Talliban… so pardon me if I wait and see.

I wish to inform you that your “line” isn’t selling (at least to me) I am not “instructing you” anymore than you are instructing me.

Calling people cutesy little names makes me think of my time in junior high rather than a serious (possibally deadly serious) discussion about US policy. Despite the current administration’s attitude, representatives from other nations deserve respect UNLESS we are at war. Then the gloves come off

“...that ten percent of Islam is into or sympathetic toward Islamofacism…Ok, but those Islamofascists - Islamic militants like bin Laden - are really just the mirror image of the Zionists.”

>>>>>smoke and mirrors

The myth of Islamofascism cultivated into a frenzied mania, exploding for all the world in the 9/11 spectacle of horror and continuing with beheadings and car bombs all over Iraq…by now sucking in all opposition voices and genuinely fanatical recruits…witless to their manipulation.

Psy-ops/black-ops everywhere. Negroponte’s death squads again on the prowl. British special forces, dressed as locals, driving around in car bombs and sniping at civilians. This is the most successful implementation of the parallel psuedo-gang techniques developed by the British in Kenya to counter the Mau Mau and the strategy of tension developed by NATO and implemented by Gladio in Western Europe to counter the Communists.

All these psy-ops/black-ops were called wild “conspiracy” fictions as they unfolded. It’s now history, yet few are willing to face the fact that intelligence agencies of democratically elected governments would do this and moles within the main stream media destroy any and all info. about it. Even the so-called “progressive” voices in the media will not touch it—“tin-foil territory” it’s called. Ok fine, now call your agent to update your lecture schedule.

It seems fitting that first the British Empire and then the Soviet Empire saw the beginnings of their ends in their half-witted invasions of Afghanistan. Comes now the sleep-walking American Empire, flushed with “success” and “victory” in all its enterprising glory, to take its well-deserved turn in the whirlpool of Dervish-land. Ignorance might indeed be “bliss.” But those rude awakenings can be hell-on-wheels. And the cycle has gotten a lot shorter, here in these latter-days.
Don’t worry, though, all you all-American consumptionists. Us native Turtle Islanders will be here to help any survivors of your immanent collapse to get back on their feet…..and learning, finally, to walk. Ya know, there’s no “free ride,” either, Lunchbunchers.
Hoka hey! And, ala Dick Cheney, ” full-speed ahead,”
which on average, for all you speedfreaks, will be about three to five miles per hour (not exactly the breakneck pace you’ve grown so accustomed to in Americandreamland).

“Dr. Knowitall (I love it), but seriously, I dont understand. President Bush is not after Islam, hes only after Islamofacism. They say, the theys that say those things, that ten percent of Islam is into or sympathetic toward Islamofacism”

Ok, but those “Islamofascists” - Islamic militants like bin Laden - are really just the mirror image of the Zionists. The majority of Muslims would not be with the extremists, BUT ONLY if Israelis would acknowledge their responsibility toward the Palestinians whose land they occupy. As it is, the very proper sympathy of the majority of ordinary Muslims for the Palestinians is precisely what is fueling Muslim extremism.

@Afganistan/HistoricalView of “Sunni-Insurgentcy” was not taken into account,thus this taliban resurgentcy is off the mark,and revisionist view of terror@the gate to the city of medina.1427years and counting.
To nationalize the military focus is to negate the global consequences of the insurgentcy having no frontiers of borders or race or nationality.
Ideology of Khalifatul mu min insurgentcy@the Gate to the City of Fatima the Lady of light from the City of Medina more to the substance of the war by monkeys jumped upon the pulpit of Mohammada ibn Abdullah to ‘interpret Arabia’ for their own political end!
1426 years insurgentcy and counting 1billion folks being led in salat with Islamic State Power as focus @intentions.com/

Spinoza, no, totally undrugged and I do meditation stress reduction group at the VA in Philadelphia twice a week.

Jackie, psycho, psycho, psycho. You probably never met a man with a spine. Most men can’t deal with psycho beyatches. They tend to become police and members of our military, totally volunteer. Value fluctations are determined by other things than oil. No doubt you’re quite familar with being screwed from many different sides.

Skruff, I obviously was familiar with US/USSR relations during WW2. You’ll have to believe that I’m familiar with world wide oil distrubtion. Anything more you feel you can instruct me about?

“Ironically, Afghan women did better  in Western terms  under the communist government that the West so vehemently opposed. Still, as far as the war against terrorism goes, the welfare of Afghanistan is seen as secondary.”

I have had it. The Bushies simply are religious zealots who worship at the alter of GWB. It is idolatry and moral crime they are committing. I a a Reagan Conservative who has been such all his life. I am tired of these people who simply will not listen to the truth even when a decent man comes back and tells us the truth.

George W Bush went to war, without a plan and with only one objective. To maintain terror over the American People so long that he could get away with looting America. He and his Bushies came out and told us that we are not seeing the Taliban return. We are by their account doing just fine and our dollar isn’t collapsing. By their account the only problem is press people who somehow are running a propaganda war against us.

George W. Bush is a Counter Revolutionary to the American Revolution and probably the greatest thief in American History. Rather than lock our borders against terrorists, he sacrifices America on the alter of “Free Trade” which contains no respect either of real free trade nor of the American people’s right to exist as free people. Look for yourself. He takes every turn towards the end of freedom and refuses every exit that goes towards freedom. It is a Reality that the Bushies just refuse to see. I have been to their party meetings where they discussed the great “Strategy” the Bush team must be having. There was no Strategy people. They didn’t even think of one. They didn’t even bother to have one.

I went to the Philippines in 1996. I saw there that we were buying a world war from our “Free Trade” ideology. Clinton was just following the lead of GWB’s father. The war formula is simple. Enslave the people by lowering their incomes to near zero, raise their cost of living towards that of the USA and then extract the goods without giving anything back. It doesn’t take a genius to see this worked.

The empire of the USA is in shambles. The USA is hated universally. The Taliban and Al Qaeda are prospering and growing. The US Armed forces are broken and the USA is financially broken. Osama bin Ladin is safe in Pakistan with our “Allie” guarding him from us. Al Anbar has destroyed the US Marine Corps.

When to people wake up from they hypnotic trance and realize that GWB is the enemy and not a lot of people they thought were the enemy.

RE:  Comment #40594 by John Cunningham on 12/03 at 7:27 am  “Comment 40564, get the Ameriscum out. Were working on that. Because of advanced minds, we will be shortly totally energy independent. Tired of paying all that welfare money to purchase oil legally and getting nothing but a raft of fecal matter in return.”

>>>>>>yeah tired of paying crooks so they can screw us from any side they like

...and who are “they?” They are no longer Americans. Oh they may carry American passports and may even keep residences in a dozen different states as well as a dozen different countries, and though once lauded for all the jobs they “gave” us, they’ve now taken away those jobs and “given” them to workers in places where work is done for peanuts. They’ve also taken great “energy independent” inventions like the electric car and literally crushed it, while cornering every new technology avenue they can buy, cheat or steal, so as to totally control it until after they’ve squeezed every last drop of profit from the perto-paradigm.

They are no longer Americans, but they want every American scared witless in the face of an endless War of Terror and willing to pay with blood, guts and money to protect their interests anywhere in the world.

As for “legally” purchasing oil, only if it’s priced in Dollars. Any oil producer daring to price their oil in Euros, should be afraid, very afraid. Another Gulf of Tonkin is waiting in the wings, scripted for their shores; e.g. Venezuela. They, the global Oligarchy, are essentially the “owners” of the world and they care nothing for any of us, John  literally nothing. They will do whatever it takes to screw us all, every way they can.

John, 1 Qeustion: Will you send your loved ones to die on a Venezuelan beach so Cheney’s cronies can rest secure that the value of their US Dollar investments will hold up?

 Damn John, not Dam, and if your scenario is correct, then folks like GWB and G-daddy better get their money out before the collapse
It would take $5.509 gas to get the US moving on an energy independence program.. You are in fact correct, we DO have the technology to use a different fuel for cars and home heating. Hydrogen is plentiful, doesnt pollute, and we wouldnt even have to give up the internal combustion dinosaur to use it…...BUT were lazy, as only big big wealth can make folks…. So we probably wont do anything until it becomes a crisis…. AND since when the technology to extract the H from the H2O goes public, the process will be so simple, anyone will be able to do it in their garage….then the Government will have to invent a new way to collect the fuel tax….
As to the US standing on the sidelines while China attempts to become a first world player by stealing Saudi oil (oh while we are on the subject did you know we now get more than 50% of our off-shore oil from Canada???) I rather doubt it We NEVER stand on the sidelines any more.

Comment 40564, ‘get the Ameriscum out’. We’re working on that. Because of advanced minds, we will be shortly totally energy independent. Tired of paying all that welfare money to purchase oil legally and getting nothing but a raft of fecal matter in return. Oh, we’re such facists and so mean to everyone. The Americans will totally withdraw from the middle east. Twenty years, tops. See ya’. Now, they’re going to get it. The Chinese are going to still have an insatiable appetite for oil. They’re going to move right in behind us. The Chinese will not be the least bit sensitive to the seething mushrooms, I mean muslims, and they’re going to take away their prayer rugs and proceed to knock the snot out of them. You know what us mean Americans are going to do? We’re going to stand on the sidelines and hold China’s coat. Now who you going to call, not US, we’re done. You’re on your own world. Now maybe you can refocus your hatred where it belongs, to your own dam selves. Then us Americans will only have to deal with the self hating Americans.

Christian Parenti has done some very good reporting and analysis from both Iraq and Afghanistan. I hope we can get the Ameriscum out as soon as possible from those two unlucky countries. I do fear that we will see warfare throughout the Middle East and possibly a world war. We live in sad times with right wing scum dominating much of the media.

I get fustrated as to the ignorance of so many Americans. Please do some reading about the history of the area. At least read about American Foreign policy in the region. Read something of the Palistinian issue and read it with an open mind.

Jee wiz… If only that was the way things really were..I must say that you are very good at strategy…You should be in Rummis place..I am not being sarcastic either… But I still believe that these people do not even begin to think on that level..I would be really saddened to think that while King George plays chess with Iran, all freakin’ hell is breaking loose in Iraq and lots of our soldgers are getting killed and maimed for life…But I guess this thing will play out like a Roman Tragedy no matter what..Nero fiddles(or plays global chess with Vlad)while Rome burns..Those flames are makin’ me thirsty..

re:40299
John, I’ve done nothing to threaten anyone of any faith. Because I live in America and I am an American citizen, I may, in their eyes, be guilty by association. I happen to think it may not be so bad being on a prayer rug, certainly no worse than being told by my Christian clergy that I’m a wretch and unworthy and going to Hell unless I accept some possibly mythical, self-appointed messenger as “my personal savior.” Not wanting to die for my beliefs, because I’ve made it through so much, I will probably hit the rug. If I were Muslim, I’d probably be wary of anything Christian, given a couple thousand years of history. All Christians, Jews and Muslims, except for the hundred million you mention (I doubt your conjecture, by the way) would probably prefer to find a way to live in harmony and mutual respect so they could raise their children in security and prosperity. As an atheist, I’d certainly feel more comfortable if religious people weren’t threating me and my lifestyle.

How are these scenarioes? It was put out a little while ago that the second in command to OBL wanted all muslims to vacate New York and Washington. Haven’t seen any mass exodus of muslims from those cities. I live about seven miles from Philadelphia, I think I would have heard something. Ain’t happening. We just had those imams that were put off of that USAirways flight. I think what they did their routine for was to ‘desensitize’ us to ‘what they do’. All in an effort to break us down. Get us all so that all of us don’t dare question ‘what they do’. We must be politically correct and God forbid we should be labeled an Islamophobe. The New York/Washington story is a diversion. Divert our attention away from their intended target, The Great Lakes. The terrorists want desperately to hit the Great Lakes with nuclear devices. We have large muslim populations in all the cities that sit on the shores of The Great Lakes. They are, again, going to hijack planes from inside the country, fly them to The Great Lakes and crash the planes into one of the world’s largest fresh water supplies. It will take years to flush out the lakes. Now, the President that everybody loves to hate, with his fourth grade education, believe it or not is playing chess on a global scale. We are in Afghanistan, east of Iran. We are in it for the long haul Iraq, which is west of Iran. We have to the north, for better or worse, our new best friend, remember we were best buds in WW2, Russia. We and Russia are playing good cop, bad cop with Iran. The Russians aren’t having a fun time with Islamofacists, either. George and Vladimir have President Imadinnerjacket surrounded, checkmate. Now they say that the bunkers in Iran are deeper than they were in Berlin. We did get Hitler, we will get Imadinnerjacket and the mullahs. Now, George isn’t that dumb after all, is he? Boy, talk about telegraphing your punch.

Dr. Knowitall (I love it), but seriously, I don’t understand. President Bush is not after Islam, he’s only after Islamofacism. They say, the theys that say those things, that ten percent of Islam is into or sympathetic toward Islamofacism. Ten percent of a little over a billion is one-hundred million. One-hundred million people on this planet are obsessed with having you on a prayer rug, by law, five times a day or killing you. I’m not making this up. You obviously have a computer, you can find all this out yourself. I don’t want to die for my beliefs. A story is told that survirors of the death factories, when asked if they learned anything from the holocaust, their response is said to be, ‘if someone tells you that they want to kill you, you should believe them’. It wasn’t until General Eisenhower toured the death camps that everyone said, ‘oh, my God, he meant it’. Now, unless you believe that films of Eisenhower were actually filmed on a Hollywood back lot, next to where they filmed the moon landing, then what part of when President Imadinnerjacket of Iran says, ‘I’m going to kill all the Jews and when I’m finished that I’m coming after the rest of you’, don’t you understand?

RE:  Comment #40071 by John Cunningham on 11/29 at 3:36 am  “Cut off the drugs you cut off the funding and they will eventually run out of bullets.”

>>>> John Cunningham knows not how much truth he speaks:

The running of drugs and arms is a favorite off-the-books revenue source the CIA & MI-6 use to fund black-ops/psy-ops programs like al Queda. Their War of Terror is an open secret redux of The Strategy of Tension seen in Western Europe at the hight of the Cold War. Chaos is their goal (total regional war) to produce totally failed states, more easily controlled, or so they think. This is the real failure, but don’t mistakenly point to What Me Worry (POTUS 43). He has virtually no control over any of his. Essentially it’s all about the Western Oligarchs, through their cabal of neocon operatives and network of spooks, fighting to save the collapsing perto/arms/drugs dollar. George W. Bush is a useful fool  the ultimate patsy, even more so than Usama bin Laden.

The Book “Imperial Hubris” predicted this situation and the civil war in Iraq. These people not only will reject “Western Democracy” but will do their level best to keep anything remotly close to it from becomming reality. The countries that have no differentiation between religion and state can not ever have democracy…even if they wanted it! The fact is that this president of ours has about a fourth grade understanding of the “global body politic”.
He believes that he will be seen as a visionary in the long run. Converting the DNA of nations that have been waring for thousands of years in varying degrees of intensity to a “Western civilization” will meet with the same results as the democracy gig..The sad thing is that there is real truth to the complaints of these nations in regard to the way the U.S has treated them over the past 40 years. I can not sympathize with them because I live in the country that has the influance and have never been on the other end of the extension of power of another nation..Thanks to the real presidents/ leaders of the past..(Meaning WW2). The additionally sad fact is that this nation has become so stupid in how we view war and the prosecution of war, that any war we choose or are thrust into- as in WW2- is not winnable..The “sissafied” generations of late, in the U.S, believe that only the war fighters are killed in war..Ask any veteran of WW2 and he/she will tell you that armies are only half of the equasion..EVERYBODY DIES. But alas, in America, that way of thinking is now viewed as “Terroristic”..If you disagree, just imagine carpet fire bombing the largest cities in Afganistan and Iraq…If you want to win at this thing called war..that is what you have to do!..Conversly, we have been a victim of our own technology..with smart weapons comes the perception that only the bad guys get killed and when there is some collateral damage, the whole world freaks out!...This is so wrong headed!-War means killing the enemy until they do not want to be killed anymore!..With that being said..all we have done is stomp our feet and temporarily scared the bad guys into the hills where they wait and watch for there chance to return…as they are doing right before our eyes..And in some cases (as with the U.K)WITH PERMISSION…Oh yea..U.K- You all sit there and place your selves so far above the frey and looking down on all that do not meet your “Regal” approval…and yet you can not even contain a small tract of land in a “war” that you did not even choose..If you are so “Regal”..why did you “puppy dog” behind America in these “Democracy building” excercises…Just as we all know..“sissafied”.

I keep wondering how G.W.Bush can still smile. I keep wondering how the American public can believe anything he says. The only people who don’t believe that he and Cheney had an agenda of invading Iraq after Afghanistan, no matter what the evidence or non-evidence of the presence of WMD was, are those that still believe O.J. Simpson is innocent. “Mission Acomplished” - ha.! What a bunch of amateurs. Good young soldiers are dying on a daily basis. Our country is almost bankrupt. Everybody hates us. There isn’t an exit strategy that makes sense. What a mess! As the late Anthony Newley would no doubt say again, “Stop the World, I want to get off”.

Scott, chill a second. Alcohol and tabacco revenues don’t fund terrorism. That’s all I said. I smoke a pack a day and have been since 13, thank God I’m still breathing at 59. It’s my last nasty habit. Remind me to tell you someday about the other nasty habit I beat. Oh, yea, then there’s the ‘couple of fews’, a few days a week. But, that’s all, I swear.

By Dr. Knowitall, Phd,Phd, November 30, 2006 at 8:11 am Link to this comment(Unregistered commenter)

re:40093, Rick
Thank you, Rick. Americans have the view of mid-easterners that our government wants us to have and one that will serve its ends. People are basically good, the world over, trying to do the best they can for their families. The picture the Bush administration is painting of Islam for Americans to see is outright distorted. There are innumerable, constructive ways Americans could have helped in the mid-East, but chose the low road. Congress, Bush and all us will long be remembered for having made that choice. I want to encourage the victims of the world to try to hang on; war-monger males might be bred out of the human race in about another couple thousand years.

Another failure of U.S. Foreign Policy. It didn’t work with Cuba or Chile or Viet-Nam. When will they learn?
Our current pains can be traced to the British and French colonialism of the XIX and XX century. A few examples: Palestine/Israel (British), Iraq (British), Pakistan/India (British), Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia (French), sub-Saharan Africa (French). An now in the XXI century, the U.S. wants to impose democracy, freedom and other “colonial” thoughts in the middle east. Clearly, these western “values” have to be raised by conviction not imposed by force.

It is funny (strange) that when people compare our jaunt through the mid east to Vietnam they never mention that out Vietnam experience was a departure from American history. Four American presidents two Republican, and two Democratic believed the war was worth fighting. Indeed, Eisenhower told Kennedy he feared that US troops would be needed in Vietnam, and if Kennedy had to deploy those troops, he (Eisenhower) would “come over from Gettysberg to stand with you while you announce the deployment.”

The incursion into Afganistan has (so far) been a Republican lead deal. IF the Democrats continue this war on their watch, then the annologies might be closer…. BUT in our history we have had very little patience with wars lasting more than six years.

In Project New American Century (newamericancentury.org), the Downing Street memos, and numerous “leaked” statements about the Bush aspirations in the Middle East, it should be abundantly clear that the empirical foreign policy to establish a clear and permanent military presence in the Middle East for the purpose of “expanding and protecting American interests in that region” has been and continues to be the U.S. objective. Never mind reading history, which our current president does not do (he freely admits that he also does not read newspapers). Had our leaders and advisors listened to the lessons of history rather than the slogans of ideology, the half trillion dollars squandered on an unsound war could have been used to develop alternative energy sources, as did Brazil. The world would also have been a much safer place than it is as a result of our having attempted to gain control of Mid-Eastern oil wealth.